chinese corporations rule the day. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that we americans call a dollar a night concludes the longest while this campaign in our history colors eleven world that need not a clue before that some additionally next time with twists and turns in the hallmarks of this campaign we're going to watch what we're about to do because you've never seen anything like this one so. what's up guys i'm abby martin so guess what just

a day after president obama got reelected the news was released that another person has been charged under the espionage act case you guys last count this will be the seventh person prosecuted under the killing of world war one legislation this time the charges against james temple berger the linguist for the navy and by her reign has been accused of making copies of classified documents regardless of his intent the espionage act concurred a charge of death look this is no laughing matter obama has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined and doesn't look like he's planning to stop anytime soon and that's why i'm breaking the set. of the. while many are bummed that obama's policies will ensue for another four years there is a silver lining and it has nothing to do with the presidency instead it has everything to do with a direct democracy that was pushed through historic propositions and multiple

states from gay marriage to approving recreational marijuana use voters made their voices heard it signifies a shift in america's collective consciousness to talk about the progress made from the election and a case for electoral reform and joined by our correspondent ramon from our l.a. studio from our new york studio and our very own. thanks so much for coming on everyone so let's start with you i mean i was devastated as a california girl to find out about the g.m.o. labeling failing in california when paul nationwide ninety percent of americans wanted some what happened. that can be answered with just one word monsanto they spent millions of dollars trying to defeat this ballot initiative along with chemical companies dupont and they wanted to do have nothing to do with this label initiative like you said it had a lot of favor ability early on in the polls but just this massive amount of negative ads claiming that it was going to boost grocery cause for the average

family really had a strong effect and at a time when there's a lot of ballots or there's a lot of initiatives on the ballot people really didn't have a lot of time to go and do their own research and they were confused by this a lot of them voted no but supporters of proposition thirty seven say they are giving the they're glad that this did get the discussion going about jim mose and they will likely be trying other ballot initiatives like these and other progressive more liberal leaning states and indeed it was made about money it wasn't about the right to choose they really did make it about that montana did a very good job pushing our propaganda through. let's talk to you want to see your new york to northeastern states just made history by. legalizing gay marriage by popular vote do you think about this do you think this signifies a shift what can we expect from other states of the bill follow suit i absolutely think this is a major symbol in the shift when it comes to this issue of the we had a total of four states vote on this issue this election season maryland mean

washington and minnesota of course three of them maryland mean and washington said yes to gay marriage minnesota said no to a ban on gay marriage but the fact that this is a historic vote was this was the first time when this issue was considered through popular vote and this is an issue that's been pushed through a popular vote unlike the previous cases of. court rulings so this is really giving a new boost to this conversation to the issue of same sex marriage because now it's turned into an issue from the people versus the politicians and the judges it's the people deciding on this and certainly with these new votes that we saw come out this tuesday certainly is a sign that u.s. society is definitely becoming a lot more socially liberal we know that according to a gallup poll house of american support same sex marriage so if the system were to work somewhat differently for example the u.s. were to throw federal referendum it's quite possible that this issue would just

become a non-issue all together. on a federal basis instead of being decided on a state by state level but still this is a big big through because right now what we have is a total of nine states plus washington d.c. that have legalized same sex marriage and this is certainly a very big one fifth of the country and definitely with this new kind of hope that this vote has brought for for advocates it's definitely something that's not going away and definitely something that's going to continue developing and. become more of a solution really in the years to come and this is something that we would never have seen see even a decade ago. you brought up polls i mean a lot of young people also consider this a non-issue the support same to. so i think as we see the older generations dying off will definitely see this getting more popular and hopefully pushing through and more states many lets go to you know has sturrock propositions not just allowing the marijuana for medicinal purposes but for recreational purposes i mean this is

unprecedented what do you think this signifies you know i agree this is huge and regardless of where you stand on on on this specific issue or whether or not you're pro legalization or pro decriminalization or you want to keep it legal this is a big shift in the culture in this country in the way that people perceive this and i think if you want to think about this more broadly we named a couple of states where this where this passed but there were other states more conservative states like arkansas that actually had this issue put on the ballot where you would it was unthinkable to see this in previous years and i think that would this actually signifies yes there's a cultural shift but also we're seeing that people or taking the idea of the drug war into the next level we're seeing all the negative consequences of the drug war and we're seeing that the kind of perpetuation of the prison industrial complex and people are ready for a kind of a shift in that kind of ideology so this push towards legalization decriminalization regardless of how you feel about it is kind of an indication that people are reaching a sort of breaking point in the way that they view the war on drugs yeah i think

the president complex has a lot to do with it people know people who smoke weed or marijuana and they look at that and say why are these people why could they be put in jail you know why are people in jail for low crime offenses when it's just a drug offenses ramon let's go to you you're in l.a. i know that you know coming from oakland i thought we saw federalized crackdowns against medical marijuana facilities what do you think's going to happen to these states who are approved for recreational use. well one of the new tactics that federal authorities are using when conducting these raids are. forfeiture lawsuits those are being done here in los angeles and there's a possibility that the feds could use those same time. in colorado and in washington where it is now legal now it's going to be a lot tougher for da da agents to be conducting mass raids like they do here in california because it's being used for recreational purposes as very likely that i

mean we're going to see an explosion of these sort of shops in colorado and in washington and i would be very tough to go down and crack down on each one individually but we also have to take a look at what this the implications are worldwide already mexico's president elect yesterday said that these legalization efforts here in the united states are going to really force him to reevaluate the direction that mexico takes in the drug war and i think a lot of other latin american countries are taking that same stance and that's a really quick follow up i know that the three strikes are reform law did pass on that we saw the death penalty to abolish the death penalty did not pass why do you think that didn't pass. well first of all we have to remember that there were actually many inmates who are currently on death row which also opposed. proposition thirty four which would have eliminated capital punishment their reasoning behind that was that if they were taken off the death row and put into

a life sentence without parole they would lose their state funded representation that was one of the cause of the ets of the law so we have to remember that there were plenty of death penalty or death penalty prisoners who were opposed to repealing the death penalty believe it or not and the other thing is that historically california voters as liberal of the reputation that we have when it comes to ballot initiatives we typically vote for these tough on crime initiatives i mean it was in the ninety's that we voted for the three strikes law many years later and we've seen that it's been costly a very costly law and order sort of law and it really hasn't improved. crime statistics and many prosecutors throughout the state have echoed this same reasoning so although the death penalty wasn't repealed in california the number of

people who appear to be leaning towards that way that are are disapproving of the death penalty penalties seems to be increasing and so i wouldn't doubt that an initiative like this will come up again here in california interesting take thank you for that and not feel it's going to you were you surprised that more people didn't come out and support third parties in the states that were swing states and i just seem like especially during obama's first term people were just so disillusioned with the two party system do you think happened well i mean actually i wasn't surprised because in the days leading up to the elections i certainly spoke to quite a few people who were considering voting for third party candidates especially here in new york obviously it's not a swing state by any means traditionally votes democrats and what ended up happening. here for one is that people said to themselves what is the point why would we go and vote considering this electoral college system and our state our votes are still going to go to obama what is the point for voting third party

system and that's certain certainly something that's been an issue and people who are supportive of the third party candidates they're the ones who say that the system really needs reform they say our votes would count a lot more where the system changed where every single vote would count instead of you know having each state pick out one of two sides of the same coin and certainly a lot of these a lot of these people were disenchanted so it hasn't really been surprising that more support wasn't shown and the states i couldn't agree more and many will turn to you do you think that the solution here is real work toward form proportional representation so what you know what you were just saying that we can get one voice one vote one voice to get really our message heard here you know i completely agree with especially with. the electoral reform is very much needed in this country and we can start taking money out of politics because that's the one thing that prevents these third party voices from being heard it seems as though you need at least a million i'm sorry a billion dollars that's the standard for becoming president in this country if we

were just eliminate that we can't see that we have free and fair elections in this country until we allow all the parties to have a voice in the election and i think that it's interesting because the elections this year they showed how polarized americans really are it was such a narrow and close election but certain third party candidates governor gary johnson got over a million a million votes that's one percent of the vote that's a that's a big deal and that just goes to show that if there's going to be real progressive change in this country it's actually going to come from the grassroots level and i think that this election was a perfect example of that you know i definitely think electoral reform is first i think that any money out of politics first we just start with proportional representation and actually get to voice the third party representing us in politics so we can really see this change take effect thank you so much. all of our correspondents across the country joining us tonight. bill i can see so far go to our you tube channel at youtube dot com slash break on the set and subscribe check out our facebook page at facebook dot com slash break in a set and if you're wondering what i'm doing or bitching about when i'm not on air

follow me on twitter abby martin let's take a break for now let's say turn to hear about the case of the holy land five and the plight of palestine next.

thanks. a lot. of you've never seen anything like. the holy land five or five muslim palestinian american men who were accused by the

u.s. government after nine eleven of funneling money to hamas their charity the holy land foundation and what followed was an outright chrissake against them leading to a conviction based on questionable evidence and now they're serving prison sentences of up to sixty five years so why is there such a double standard when it comes to muslims and even more so how it's time to talk about that and more i was joined earlier by nora barrows freedman sociate editor and staff reporter with the electronic intifada i first asked her if there can be any retribution for the holy land five. over the past week and a half i've been speaking with some of the lawyers and civil rights advocates that have been involved in the holy land five defense team and it's unclear what the next step is and or that the family and some civil rights organizations are talking about. paving the way towards exoneration and release.

but as the legal recourse this latest appeal to the supreme court was pretty much the last one and with the supreme court basically ignoring the differences the titian and stating that they would not hear this case it is it is almost completely closed the door on this issue unfortunately and these men. as are as you said serving these rethink really just unprecedented sentences essentially for feeding palestinian kids. as we know the usa id was giving money to the same charities so what is this really about here nora. well how much time to read. i know you know after nine eleven of course we saw the bush administration and now the obama administration which is continuing. really ramping up. attacks on. and muslims and arabs and especially people who do any sort of

humanitarian aid work for palestine i mean we can talk at length about how both of us governmental administration so far have been. surveilling muslims and arabs and have been conducting these really vicious house to house raids the f.b.i. has been putting grand jury together trying to build cases against. standing members of society who happen to be muslim who happen to be error who happens to be working on behalf of palestinian human rights. and this case i believe and so many others of course i'm sure knew were at last she spoke about this at length and this case really exemplifies the lengths that the u.s. government will go to set to set an example really to to use the tens of millions billions of dollars you know in homeland security to drum up fear and

intimidation inside the muslim and arab community in this country and also to to make it clear that humanitarian aid for palestinians is not going to be tolerated and really it's just it's so terrifying and as as a journalist who's worked in palestine you know pretty much for ten years now and seeing what u.s. policy looks like on the ground when it supports the israeli regime when it supports the israeli military and seeing how u.s. . u.s. military aid to palestine is to israel is wreaking havoc upon the people palestine when you go to gaza and you see how many homes have been demolished and how kids aren't getting the services and you know the humanitarian aid that they need to survive the holy. and foundation was able to to

fill in the gaps absolutely and it is just such an enormous hypocrisy nor when you look at you know feeding palestinian kids and even if they were giving money to hamas i mean look at that the government taking any k. called off the state department terror terrorist list i mean and you have lawmakers receiving tens of thousands of dollars to speak on behalf of that i mean it's just such an astounding hypocritical line coming from this government it really does always come back to israel i mean you know there was this huge poll from sharon that was swaying the case from the beginning and now you have netanyahu with his unabashed a lawless ness encroaching more and more on palestinian land we just saw the news they're continuing hundred homes settlements it's been condemned by so many countries this is strategic timing with the palestinian bid for statehood what do you what do you think is going on here you know how i mean israel has always been building settlements and. and so and it's always

a strategic time for them because no u.s. administration since that time has been able to make them stop or has has put any conditions on the table you know for example we won't give you any more money for your government or your military unless you stop stealing palestinian land imprisoning palestinian children and building these illegal settlements that are as you say you know against international law and are being condemned by the international community. so you know there is a politics game here of course netanyahu is making all these statements like he you know he was. fearful that obama would. tell him not to build any more settlements but we've actually never seen that evidence in the last four years that the bomb and ministration has been in power israel has continued to build settlements at its whim and we see the gobbling up of how the. in the inland especially in occupied

east jerusalem and elsewhere in the central occupied west bank where palestinians are continuing continuingly being pushed off their land where these settlements are being. expanded at an extraordinary rate and no one's there to stop it. you know so it doesn't matter what international law says really doesn't matter what the international community says as long as israel has a willing partner in the us which it's going to continue to be under the second term of the environment ministration they can do to please and it's right as long as the u.s. isn't turning a blind eye to the greatest human rights violations of our i've never seen a lecture that you gave a couple of years ago where you were talking about kind of a psychological warfare it's not just the building of settlements it's the it's the way that they're built the architecture of occupation and just kind of the more psychological aspect of what is really going on there was one if you can just elaborate

a little bit i'm not sure you know they're built like fortresses since sixty seven these settlements have been gobbling up land especially on the hilltops in the west bank and really it you know the occupation is such so that these fortresses are built above the palestinian villages and of course the people who are on those hilltops before the settlements came are either in refugee camps or elsewhere inside the west bank or in gaza or they've gone out of the country and so you know palestinians are now forced into these smaller and smaller bantu stands really as what they are surrounded on all sides by these settlement blocks that are continuing to expand i mean the cranes in the bulldozers are working day and night . and and in in many cases you know just. the it's just it's almost like i'm speechless trying to describe this there are. ways

in which the the raw sewage from these settlement blocks are are deliberately channeled into the palestinian villages below. so just you know the imagery of that and what it literally means on the ground for palestinians to be living in the shadow of these fortress illegal settlements and then to be. rained down upon by the raw sewage from the people who are illegally occupying their land so many sides of a fortune are out of time there's so much more to going to thank you so much for your time your bros friedman of the electronic intifada project censored really appreciate your time things happen. i know this is the tenth anniversary of the u.n. security council adopted resolution four hundred forty one given iraq a final opportunity to comply with disarming itself of its alleged weapons of mass

destruction between two thousand and two and two thousand and three u.n. inspectors conducted over nine hundred spectrums and iraq and they didn't find any traces of biological or chemical weapons or any evidence of a nuclear weapons program although iraq complied with the inspections the u.s. abandoned diplomacy and decided to invade the country on march nineteenth two thousand and three so why am i talking about iraq well because history repeats itself in the same way that the us government led an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign oil rich country in two thousand and three the wheels are in motion for a similar attack against the sovereign or the rich state of iran the media and political stablish men would like to have you believe that iran is the biggest threat facing this country but who is a threat to who when in fact the us has played a large and in many ways sinister role in shaping modern day iran for a lot of americans u.s. iran relations are highlighted by the one nine hundred seventy nine hostage crisis

where fifty two u.s. diplomats were held hostage by iranian university students into iran for four hundred forty two days but the truth is the most important date to remember is nineteen fifty three this is the year the u.s. overthrew iran's first democratically elected leader and installed the shah a pro u.s. dictator why would the u.s. do this i thought we were all about spreading democracy well once you throw a little oil in the mix democracy gets kicked to the curb prior to b.p. or british petroleum controlled all of iran's oil production so many iranian prime minister mohammad was saudi nationalize the oil industry. britain took iran to the world court how dare a country try to man its manage its own resources well when britain lost the claim they turned to president eisenhower and under the pretense of iran being a communist threat they urged the us to intervene the newly formed cia staged operation ajax a crew to overthrow the democratically elected government of iran and after that

iranian oil was once again following in the control of britain the us the netherlands and france under harsh autocratic control the shah backed by the us ruled iran for the next twenty five years and after decades of protests in one hundred seventy nine two million people flooded a square into her own started a general strike which shut down the state's economy the shah had no choice but to step down at this point and a religious leader ayatollah khomeini the shah's biggest opponent who have been exiled for fourteen years returned to become a leader by popular demand that began in the islamic republic of iran less than a year later saddam hussein invaded iran to gain access to iran's oil and trade routes in the gulf the result was one of the longest and most tragic conventional wars of the twentieth century all the while the us was supporting saddam with money weapons intelligence even after learning that the iraqi military was using chemical

weapons against iranian and its own citizens. fast forward to today iran is completely isolated and being closed in by the u.s. military take a look at this map the country is completely surrounded by u.s. bases its economy is in shambles because of crippling u.s. sanctions and just over the last year the u.s. has sponsored assassinations of iranian nuclear scientists and gauged in cyber warfare against their infrastructure sent drones to spy on the country and these are just the things that we know about so i'll ask again just who is threatening who i want you to picture this scenario if you ron had staged a coup fifty years ago in the u.s. to install a pro iranian dictator if you ron had unmatched military influence in mexico and canada if you were on implemented crippling sanctions against this country if you wrong sponsored rogue terrorist groups here to overthrow our government and with all of that if you wrongly build this country as the biggest threat to world peace

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son technology innovation all the. developments around russia we've got those huge earth covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. i am a professional.